“For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
~Isaiah 57:15 (NRSV).
We all have low days. These are times when despite our heart to try, everything appears beyond us. We do not lack the morality to live well, just the confidence we normally take for granted has evaporated.
If we’re inclined to accept such a state, not resorting to anger in fighting our way out of it, we have a close friend in the Lord, our God. He will inhabit and heal us.
God’s a Reviver of Both Spirit and Heart
The moment we steer by our anger — a truly normal temptation — and leave that way, but gaze up into the heavens, instead, we take our positions, and into the honour of God we go.
We’re found to be inhabited by God when we’re honestly contrite, humble of spirit.
That is, when we’re comprehensively rejected by the world, and even by those most precious to us, God is then making a home in us by the evidence of his holy Presence.
Practically the Lord does this by reviving us in our low states. He will restore us by the therapy of divine grace — an inexplicable portion of healing. But this healing can only occur when we accede to the divine requirement; that is, contrition of heart and humility of spirit — not fighting one fleck in our own strength.
Tears are characteristically good. Silent prayer too. Anything to let go.
No matter what have we’ve done, or not done, we feel undone in God’s holy Presence. We don’t feel crushed, but nurtured. Self-esteem is not the issue. We’re simply acknowledging the truth — God is great, and we, though lowly, are being swept up in his ever redeeming care.
Always Present – Ethereal and Real to Life
We can be left wondering as to how God inhabits eternity, yet stoops so expertly at our direst need.
Our God belongs in the heavenly realm but also most adroitly in the birth-to-death groans of suffering creation. This can never change; God has promised to be there with us, eternally. Even at the end of life there is God.
We must not panic about our relationships status. We have believed by faith as we draw up close to the Holy One, very particularly in the worst of the daily depressions and anxieties.
We may feel far from God, but we may know we are near.
And as soon as we know we will feel deeply, our hearts sluiced clean; our spirits massaged in fresh God-confident being.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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